Jens Meyer and Martin Klavsen - photo: Blue Hors
Jens Meyer has since 2020 been a part of Blue Hors team in terms of special advisor for among others scouting foals, young horses and young stallions.
PART OF ARTICLE AT HORSE MAGAZINE
One of those foreign sets of eyes belonged to Jens Meyer, although my friend has undergone a sea change since first I met him thirty years ago. Then he was, like his father before him, a loyal Hanoverian breeder, and he went on to establish a powerful stable of top Hanoverian stallions. Like horse breeding itself, Jens has become universal, he advice is sought by breeders and breed societies around the world, and he is contracted to Blue Hors as a special advisor, and roving buyer looking for exciting stallion prospects irrespective of geography and studbook…
What were his impressions of this year’s KWPN show, and this year he had a personal interest, bringing three Glamourdales from Blue Hors to the testing, one out of a full-sister to Kjento.
“I come with another view, for me, it is interesting to see what each stallion is capable of doing, and try to build a bridge from the licensing, to the horse under saddle, and then to the foals. The foal business now is completely different, we don’t have the farmers any more, now it is big studs with really specialised persons who produce foals that they can sell. For me I am very proud, I bought three Glamourdales, three years ago. One is licensed in Westfalia, and one here, so you have the right taste three years ago. What we need for the new generation, that Blue Hors can produce stallions for the breeders to use.”
“What is good here for me is that if the horse is not licensed, he can come again in eight weeks and be tested under saddle. For a commission, they must judge what they see here, but in the end we want a riding horse, and we must look for the construction that works under saddle. We have seen it in the past where we have had stallions that do not have nice conformation, they were performance test winners, but they get no chance to make no foals, and the stallion must make foals to succeed.
What did you like about the Glamourdales?
“Okay he is the World champion, but what is important for me is that the progeny are really sportive horses. I like how he is able to do this. When he was a young one, it was really interesting to see with this huge canter, could he make it small, and he is able to do it. With the Hanoverians, we need canter, and if you have a huge canter that can be made small, that it very good, but there are not so many who can do this, that makes Glamourdale very interesting.”
What did you think of the Le Formidables?
“I will wait, I am surprised, he made a medium test, and I am surprised with what he produced on phenotype, and now good foals, I like them. We’ll see what they do under saddle. Right now I am not going out looking for a Le Formidable, but if they can show under saddle, then I am looking. We need stallions that produce phenotype, and for this he makes good, he gives longer legs, a good front leg, and we’ll see what the horse is able to do. Interesting horse.”
We haven’t seen the Toto Jrs yet…
“Tomorrow we’ll know more. He makes not such shiny foals, but the brain is really super, it looks like they will be really sportif horses.”
Why don’t they use any B line in this country?
“I think when we have the right one, it will come, but every country has their own lines, their own ideas in the construction of the horse, but I think in the future the B line will come. When we think now the influence of Vivaldi is very big, especially in Hanover, this is twenty years ago here, so sometimes it needs time to move a line.”
“It is interesting to see that this licensing system works. Last weekend in Amsterdam in the World Cup Grand Prix we had four licensed stallions competing and one – Hermes – won.”
Here you can read the full article at Horse Magazine.
Note: When reading the article the part about Valverde now being ridden by Daniel Bachmann Andersen is not correct.